INVESTIGATIONS

cover-moldova

A JUDGE FOR SMUGGLING: INTELLIGENCE TEAM LEFT MOLDOVA THE DAY CHAUS WAS ABDUCTED

On the 3rd of April, a dark, tinted off-road vehicle drove into the small town of Otaci, located 250 kilometers north of Chisinau. It was heading towards the border checkpoint. From that site — if you walk along the Friendship Bridge — you’ll find yourself in the Ukrainian border checkpoint, […]

17/04/2021

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EXCHANGE OF FAVORS: POROSHENKO-PLAHOTNIUC

A Ukrainian judge suspected of corruption fled from justice in Kiev in 2016 and found shelter in Chisinau, where he still stays, seeking for political asylum. Classified documents which RISE Moldova obtained in a team work with journalists at Slidstvo.info show that the magistrate did not actually ran away from […]

16/04/2021

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KREMLINOVICI: DEPLOYMENT

On the eve of the presidential election campaign, a cohort of Russian political consultants arrived in Moldova. They most probably landed in Chisinau with the Kremlin’s agreement — as one Russian expert confessed to an undercover RISE Moldova reporter. RISE Moldova has identified eight so-called election technology advisers, who were […]

7/11/2020

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KREMLINOVICI: „INSTRUCTIONS” FOR FAVORITES

A speech edited for Irina Vlah, future governor of the Gagauzian autonomy, in 2015. Slogans for an anti-Romania rally in Comrat in 2016. A „blockade” that may erupt into „a new conflict on the Dniester” in 2017. Monitoring a meeting of Igor Dodon with diaspora residents in Sankt-Petersburg in 2018. […]

5/11/2020

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PORTRAITS IN KREMLIN

RISE Moldova has discovered a folder of briefing notes and reports about some of Moldovan politicians running for the post of president in the 1 November 2020 election, in the so-called Chernov Archives — a data leak from the Moldova affairs office of the Russian presidential administration. Kremlin officials had […]

27/10/2020

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#KREMLINOVICI: PRESIDENT OF RUSSIAN INTELLIGENCE

During his long political career, the lawmaker and later President Igor Dodon has been timing his activities with a Moldovan affairs office in the Kremlin — a unit established to oversee and guide the Socialist Party leader and other politicians in the Republic of Moldova, either through intermediaries or directly. […]

26/10/2020

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KREMLINOVICILEAKS

RISE Moldova, in collaboration with Досье Центр (Dossier Center), would like to present the investigative project #Kremlinovici. It sheds light to the close connections between Igor Dodon, Moldova’s incumbent seeking a second presidential term, with Russia’s intelligence services. Kremlinovici is the username Mr. Dodon used in discussions with Moldovan politicians. […]

25/10/2020

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A Fake News LAB (PART 2). A Man From The Crimea

News Front, a news website registered in the Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula annexed by the Russian Federation, has been blacklisted by Moldova’s security service SIS for the duration of the emergency period. The measure followed the publication of a fake news titled “Romania tried to `blow up` Moldova with fake […]

28/08/2020

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A Fake News LAB (PART 1). The Creator

„Finally Moldova is going to get rid of its biggest evil…” „I hope it’s true, though I don’t believe” „I’d be happy if this is true” „Right!” „May Lord listen to us” „This is not quite real” „False” „It’s a fake!” „Fake news!” These are some of dozens of reactions […]

30/07/2020

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The Ministry of Interceptions

Over the past few years, the state authorities unleashed a genuine campaign of tapping and surveillance of figures opposing the Democratic Party rule. The operation unfolded under the cover of three criminal dossiers, which were very much similar, while Facebook posts and statements made at news conferences were the sources […]

14/06/2019

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Rescuers of the Transnistrian Metallurgic Plant: Filip and Poroshenko have helped Transnistria earn millions

The prime minister of Moldova, Pavel Filip, has contributed to escaping from Ukrainian sanctions to one of the largest corporate tax-payers in the unrecognized Transnistrian republic – the Moldovan Metallurgic Plant. RISE Moldova and СХЕМИ have obtained a copy of a letter in which the head of the Moldovan executive […]

14/05/2019

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Troika from Moldova

Troika Laundromat is the biggest leakage of banking documents. It contains more than 1.3 million transactions involving 233,000 companies and individuals, worth more than 300 billion euros overall. The data represent a compilation of documents from a variety of sources and were obtained by OCCRP and 15min.lt, a Lithuanian portal. […]

4/03/2019

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A Colonel’s Disguised Trips

A police colonel who has been awarded a Faith to Fatherland Order and a high church medal has left a hole of thousands of lei in the budget of his employer, the Ministry of Interior Affairs. During one year, the police official submitted fictive reports about his business trips between […]

24/01/2019

The Prime Minister’s Neighbor

A company has set in to become a neighbor to the Moldovan Prime Minister, Pavel Filip. The company has acquired a large single-family house for which it paid millions of lei. RISE Moldova has learned that the company’s formal owners are not its true beneficiaries and that it actually belongs […]

3/12/2018

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VIDEO: The Shadow Banker

Kiev, Ukraine. July 25, 2016, half past eight in the evening. Veaceslav Platon, a controversial Moldovan businessman, is forced down to the ground and handcuffed by Ukrainian police. The arrest takes place only nine hours after the head of the Anticorruption Prosecution Office in Chisinau had announced that Mr. Platon […]

14/11/2018

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VIDEO: The Puppet

Mikhail is a 61-year-old man and is one among the many poor. He used to sleep anywhere until one day he rose as the boss of a ghost company. His dream as a businessman didn’t last long though. Whoever made him so have disappeared along with all the papers – […]

10/09/2018

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Poroshenko–Sheriff Business Connections

Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko has publicly condemned the secessionist regimes in eastern Ukraine and banned any economic ties with the regions Donetsk, Lugansk, and Crimea. On the other hand, his company has maintained close trade connections with Sheriff Holding in Transnistria, a breakaway republic in eastern Moldova. Sheriff is the […]

20/03/2018

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VIDEO: Mercenaries

“To Donbass! Huray!” “It takes me five seconds to kill a man.” “What weapons did they give you?» «Kalashnikov”. The armed conflict between eastern and western Ukraine has lured Moldovan mercenaries to Donbass Region. For the sake of money, they became pawns in fighting trenches that seek to remove the […]

7/02/2018

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Senior Moldovan Judge’s Daughter Lived In Posh London Flat — With Tainted Money

The daughter of a top Moldovan judge lived large in London thanks to 1.6 million lei (US$ 130,000) that was channeled through two companies involved in the Russian Laundromat – a massive money laundering scheme that pumped billions of dollars through Moldova from Russia. Most of the money went to […]

3/01/2018

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Moldovan Standard for Crimea

The annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation has not deterred some Moldovan firms from doing business with the peninsula. Even higher costs that incurred from the double itinerary or Russian intermediate firms could not stop the usual dealings. The government in Kiev outlawed all direct trade with Cream without […]

29/11/2017

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Transaction And Interests Behind «The White House»

At the beginning of 2017, a Cypriot offshore has acquired “The White House”, a commanding residential building in a luxury district of the Moldovan capital Chișinău. During the transaction for this property, which cost the buyer 130 million lei, the firm was represented by Iurie Luncașu, a man from the […]

25/05/2017

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[VIDEO] THE MURDER BUSINESS

A criminal business led by a policeman ended up with a murder. The victim is a taxi driver who has been used in an embezzlement scam of a land from Chisinau, Moldova, with a market value of over four million euros. The taxi driver was assassinated in Transnistria. In two […]

23/05/2017

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#LAUNDROMAT: How Veaceslav Platon’s High Life in Kyiv Came Crashing Down

An Instagram photo showing a Bentley Continental GT V8 doing 250 kilometers an hour reads “We’re taking off. #IAmARocket #Gagarin #Let’sGo.” Elina Cobaleva, a Russian celebrity stylist, sits behind the wheel. She is the ex-wife of Veaceslav Platon, a Moldovan businessman, and one of the country’s richest men. The two […]

20/03/2017

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#LAUNDROMAT: Two huge scams. One Moldovan businessman

In the Republic of Moldova, they call it the “Theft of the Century.” In 2014, $1 billion was drained from three banks in Europe’s poorest country into a web of secretive offshore companies. The money disappeared leaving taxpayers with the debt, the banks collapsed, and local authorities are still scratching […]

20/03/2017

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Parasite Firms of Transnistria

In spite of austere finances, the government of the unrecognized Transnistrian republic in eastern Moldova throws millions of dollars from public coffers every year, providing this way relief or advantages to firms that are run or controlled by local elected representatives. During the past three years alone their benefits amounted […]

23/01/2017

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Russian-linked Offshore Helps Fund Socialist Campaigns

An associate of Igor Dodon, the frontrunner in Moldova’s upcoming presidential election, is linked to a mysterious Russian-linked offshore corporation that appears to have funneled at least 30 million lei (about US$ 1,5 million) into Dodon’s Socialist Party over the past three years. The sum represents about two-thirds of the […]

28/09/2016

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The Moldovan Banking Wars

Banker Veaceslav Platon, a former parliamentarian detained in Kyiv on Monday for allegedly taking part in the theft of US$ 1 billion from three Moldovan banks and laundering billions through others, spent the months leading up to his arrest trying to take over yet another Moldovan bank, RISE Moldova has […]

26/07/2016

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Businessman connected to Plahotniuc, associated with a former Prime Minister

Documents from the #PanamaPapers have revealed another Moldovan businessman with hidden offshore connections: telecommunications executive Gheorghe Nicolaescu. Nicolaescu joined forces with former Prime Minister Cyril Gaburici and Liliana Ilescu, the sister of the President of the Central Election Commission. Some of these companies link directly to wealthy Moldovan businessman and […]

10/05/2016

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Offshore relationship between Plahotniuc and Voronin

Wealthy Moldovan businessman and politician Vladimir Plahotniuc and the family of former President Vladimir Voronin are connected in an offshore company controlled by the NIT TV channel. RISE Moldova reporters found documents that show that a minister, a deputy minister, and the speaker of Parliament have all been involved in […]

5/05/2016

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PANAMA_PAPERS: Offshore winery

According to the Panama Papers, two Russian businessmen used an offshore company to borrow more than € 5 million for a winery they own in Chisinau. Documents compiled by the offshore services firm of Mossack Fonseca show the two set up a company in the British Virgin Islands. The point […]

4/05/2016

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Media sheriffs from Transnistria

The media in Transnistria is controlled by authorities in Tiraspol. This is shown by the analysis of the shareholding structure of Transnistrian media outlets conducted by RISE Moldova. Official influence on public media — whose editorial policy is dictated by the “friendly relations” with the Kremlin — is disputed by […]

3/05/2016

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The cellist and the lawyer

Banking records obtained by OCCRP show that cellist Sergei Roldugin, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s old friend, received money from an offshore company at about the same time it was being used to steal money from the Russian government in the notorious Sergei Magnitsky case. The Magnitsky case involved the theft […]

26/04/2016

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#PANAMA_PAPERS: TV owners with ties to offshore

An American and a Moldovan businessman connected to leading Moldovan media and internet companies have enlisted the services of Mossack Fonseca, the notorious financial services company involved in the Panama Papers scandal. Sun Communications, Moldova’s largest cable television distributor and one of the country’s main internet services providers (ISPs), was […]

11/04/2016

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Stati secrets and the bribes from Africa

Documents from the global investigative project The Panama Papers show that the Stati family of Moldova has juggled more than 50 offshore companies in the international oil industry, most registered in the tax havens of the British Virgin Islands (BVI), Gibraltar, Belize and Luxembourg. This new evidence augments RISE Moldova’s […]

7/04/2016

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[#PanamaPapers] The Offshore Connection of an ex-PM

When former Moldovan Prime Minister Ion Sturza first heard about the Panama Papers, he posted a warning on his Facebook page to his former colleagues: “I see some of the Moldovan politicians [are] very relaxed in Dubai’s offshores” thinking that the offshore scandal is only about Panama, he wrote. But […]

4/04/2016

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Private port at Giurgiulesti for businessmen connected to the Patron gang

Police say the Patron gang is one of the major criminal organizations in Moldova, involved in contract killings, arms trafficking and cigarette smuggling. A group of businessmen connected to the gang wants to set up a private port for cargo ships around the Giurgiulesti port on land of strategic importance, […]

18/03/2016

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Secret holding company of a minister

Documents obtained by RISE from Italy, Cyprus and Romania reveal that Minister of Transport Iurie Chirinciuc controls Cavio, an Italian furniture holding company, via a close family associate. Another set of documents shows how people who represented Chirinciuc’s interests were appointed deputy ministers in his ministry. CAVIO HOLDING — ITALY […]

10/03/2016

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Gazprom empire in Moldova

RISE Moldova publishes confidential contracts for the purchase of Russian gas signed by the leadership of Gazprom and Moldovagaz, as well as the context in which they were negotiated. Moreover, RISE outlines the network of companies through which the Russian giant controls the transmission, distribution and supply of natural gas […]

3/03/2016

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EU fruit exported to Russia with Moldovan passport

Phytosanitary inspectors issued certificates to export fruit to fake Transnistrian companies authorizing a thousand truckloads of fruit to Belarus. In reality, no fruit from Moldova arrived in stores in Minsk or Moskow. Instead, the documents were used by Lithuanian, Belarusian and Russian businessmen to import fruits from European Union (EU) […]

2/03/2016

Forest Traffickers

On the black market, the right to lease one hectare of woodland sells for up to € 30,000. The sellers are racketeers who, between 2008 and 2012, succeeded in signing leases with Moldsilva. RISE Moldova went undercover to investigate the forest traffickers and how they got millions of lei from […]

28/10/2015

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Moldovan Embargo on Fruit Export to Russia

RISE Moldova reporters infiltrated an organized network that has a monopoly on fruit exports to Russia and obtained two sets of documents signed by Chișinău plant health specialists and customs officers. The documents permit the export of two fruit trucks to the Russian market, bypassing the Russian embargo. The members […]

19/08/2015

Millions from Air Traffic Seized in Brussels

A judicial war unleashed against Moldova more than a decade ago by the Ukrainian company Energoalians has left a hole of millions of lei in the country’s budget. For about four months, all the money collected by state air traffic control company MoldATSA, which directs the planes in Moldovan air […]

14/08/2015

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Judges with Apartments

In Chisinau, judicial robes translate to “cheap apartments.” The bargain is due to the Chișinău City Hall that, despite having been deprived of many plots of land as a result of questionable court judgments, has assigned two parcels worth more than five million lei (US$ 252,000) for the use of […]

30/07/2015

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Money Hunters

Moldova has been the target of international organized crime organizations, specializing in bank fraud and money laundering. Prosecutors say that in recent years, nine people from three continents came to Chișinău to launder more than US$ 3 billion. Armed with business cards identifying themselves as big investors and fake contracts, […]

20/07/2015

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PlahotniucLeaks

RISE Moldova has analyzed more than 1,000 documents, IP addresses, servers and email addresses that prove the connections between Vladimir Plahotniuc, a Member of Parliament and influential businessman, and the General Media Group Trust that includes the TV channels Publika TV, Prime TV, Canal 3 and Canal 2. The documents […]

18/05/2015

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The Russian Laundromat

Call it the Laundromat. It’s a complex system for laundering more than $20 billion in Russian money stolen from the government by corrupt politicians or earned through organized crime activity. It was designed to not only move money from Russian shell companies into EU banks through Latvia, it had the […]

22/08/2014

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